Daniele da Volterra had been commissioned by Paul III to complete the decoration of the Sala Regia.

On the death of the pope in 1549, he lost his position as superintendent and the pension to which it entitled him.

He has since devoted himself chiefly to sculpture.

After Michelangelo dies in Rome on February 18, 1564, a few weeks shy of his eighty-ninth birthday, Pius commissions the artist’s good friend and former student to cover up Michelangelo’s nude figures in the Sistine Chapel, which is how Volterra earns the nickname Il Braghettone—"the breeches maker."

Volterra’s fine draftsmanship of the nude reflects his study of the late works of Michelangelo, of whom Volterra creates a bronze portrait bust (later famous).